26 Brain Break Ideas for the Classroom

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Written by Holly (Teach Starter)

Posted 18th Oct, 2016 | 7 min read

Gone are the days of making your students sit still for hours at a time. We now know, thanks to extensive research, that kids need to move and take brain breaks to improve their concentration and brain activity.

The image below shows two brain scans. The first is of a student who has been sitting quietly doing a test, the other is that of a student who has just been for a 20-minute walk. The brain is much more active after some form of a brain break.

This blog will outline some quick and easy ways to get your students to take a brain break, even if it is for 10 minutes, it is sure to limit distractions and improve attention. Make it part of your classroom routine…

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Brain Break Ideas for the Classroom

As teachers, we know the research, we know that brain breaks are an essential part of the classroom routine. However, sometimes it get’s hard coming up with fun ways to incorporate brain breaks into the classroom. Here are some fun and easy resources that are the perfect solution to this problem.

Included in this resource are colored circles that can be stuck on the end of paddle pop sticks. Use these signs to indicate to your students what activity they will be doing. I used our Letter, Number and Punctuation set – Cartoon Green for the heading.

Examples of Activities

Dance Off

Choose an age appropriate song for your class. Play the music and have the students dance. When the music stops, students have to freeze. Whoever moves, is out. Keep playing until there is one person left. Those students who are out, help spot students who move when the music is off.

Hot Potato

Classmates gather in a circle and toss a beanbag or tennis ball to each other while music plays. The player who is holding the ‘hot potato’ when the music stops is out.

The winner is announced when one player is left.

Scissors Paper Rock

This is a 2-player game, but the whole class can play in a knock-out round tournament. On the count of three, players pick their position:

rock – hand in a fist

paper – hand flat, palm down

scissors – extending the first two fingers and holding them apart.

The winner of that round depends on the items formed. If the same item is formed, it’s a tie.

rock crushes scissors

scissors cuts paper

paper covers rock

Silent Ball

Find an area where you can safely toss a ball around. No one can talk or make a sound – being silent is the aim of the game.

The ball is tossed between classmates. Students cannot throw the ball back to the person who threw it to them. If a player misses the ball, talks or makes a bad pass, that student is out. The last two players are the champions.

Heads and Tails

Students stand in a group or at their desks. The teacher calls out true or false statements.

True – hands on your head. If a student thinks the statement is true, then they put their hands on their heads.

False – hands on your bottom. If a student thinks the statement is false, then they put their hands on their bottoms.

If your guess is incorrect, you must sit down. The last person standing wins.

Other Brain Break Ideas

Fitness Bingo

Use our different fitness bingo cards. Kids love playing BINGO so why not incorporate a little bit of a brain break with some fitness bingo!

Hearts, Diamonds, Clubs and Spades

Using each of the suits in the deck of cards, place one in each corner of the classroom. From the remaining deck of cards, remove the Aces and then shuffle, pull out a card and show it to the students, they must yell out ‘hearts, diamonds, clubs or spades’ and run to the correct corner. Students who go to to the incorrect corner or the last few students to the correct corner are out.

Shuffle, Shuffle, Group!

In this game, students shuffle around the classroom until the teacher says, “Groups of 5,” at which point the students must quickly group themselves into groups with the correct number of people. Students who are left over must do three jumping jacks before the next round starts. The teacher can call out any number for the group size.

The Bean Game

This active game encourages the development of listening skills, cognitive processing skills, physical activity and social skills. Students move carefully and silently around a safe, open space. As soon as they hear the ‘bean call’ ask the students to make the shape or movement of the corresponding bean as quickly as they can. This will become a class favorite.

Timed Chatter

Allow the students to do what they are desperate to do. Set a 3-minute timer and allow the students to get up and talk to their friends.